Thoughts from a teacher

Sometimes I read parenting blogs. I teach five-year-olds. They're not mine, but I am parenting them. I'm sure I see some of them more than their parents do. I like to get parenting information from time to time to see if it helps with my students. Sometimes it does. Sometimes the advice is stupid. The other day I came across one that talked about how to talk to your kids. It said something like we often talk to our kids in ways that we would never talk to our friends, and we would never allow someone to talk to us like that. I thought, "That is so true. I'm going to try to talk to my students how I would like to be talked to." That lasted for about 10 minutes. Then one kid climbs on the table. One pulls another's hair. Two start fighting. One is using her spit to draw pictures on the table. The rest are all running to look out the window because someone saw a really cool car. It's very true, I would never speak to my husband the way I speak to my students. I never speak to my friends or family the way I speak to my students. You know why? They are adults. They don't paint on the table with their saliva. They leave their clothes on in public, usually. They don't start wrestling in the middle of a lesson. They don't start crying because someone is copying everything they say. They don't say poo every other word. I never raise my voice to adults because I don't have to. They know how to behave.

Kindergarten teachers are very special people. There are frequently days when I think that I am not special enough to be one. Okay, really, teachers are special people. All you with kids, go show your kids' teachers some appreciation. They put up with a lot. And, yes, some of it is from your kid.

Did I mention that I went to Tanzania?

Happy Thanksgiving

Today is Thanksgiving. I'm at work. For some reason Canadian holidays are not observed in Korea. Weird. My coworkers and I decided that we had to do something, so we made Thanksgiving dinner at my house. There were nine people (two were American, and one British, but we let them in anyway) in my little, tiny apartment, way too much food, and two gigantic pumpkin pies. We didn't have turkey, but apparently we can buy them here now, so we are planning for Christmas. We had roast chicken, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy, and vegetables. To make it Korean we had a Korean chicken stew and a bowl of glass noodles. The pies were from Costco. What a wonderful place. I also made brownies with peanut butter glaze. They were wonderful. I like Thanksgiving. I hope all of you enjoy your Thanksgiving and your turkey and football. Go Riders!

I hate computers

Okay, I know you're all thinking, "What? This is the first Saturday, and no blog post. Robin promised that she would update every Saturday. Where's the post Robin?" Well, I did write one. I really did. I wrote it and then I pushed the publish button, and nothing happened. I pushed it again. Nothing happened. I pushed the save button. That worked. I pushed the publish button again. Nothing. I yelled and screamed and said mean things to my computer about how it's worthless. Just because it's four years old does not mean that it's ready for retirement. I pushed the publish button. Nothing. I asked nicely. Nothing. I gave up on my stupid computer and went to Samuel's. I pushed the publish button. Nothing. So, no post on Saturday. Now it's Monday morning at work. I will push the publish button at work.



Here is the post I wrote on Saturday:

My Class

I got a new class of 6 year-olds way back in March. Last year by this time I had posted about my class twice. This year I haven't posted about my class at all. Not even once. You want to know why I didn't? Of course you do. You are dying to know. It's because I didn't like them. Not even a little bit. They drove my up the wall. I didn't like them at all. They were loud. They didn't listen. They couldn't stand in line, or sit in their chairs. They were terrible. I would go home and cry and tell Samuel that we were never having kids because the kids in my classes didn't listen to me. I couldn't write about them. Six months later, I don't cry anymore, but I still don't really like them. Sometimes I think that they're cute, but mostly I think that they are loud and don't know how to listen. They listen a lot better than they did at the start of the year, but I still don't like them. They are so bad. And it's not just me. They other teachers all have trouble with my class. I think I would like my kids if I weren't their teacher. I have one student who, no matter what I say we are going to do, says, "I don't want to." To absolutely everything. She is adorable, but I don't think she's adorable when she's being a brat, which is a lot of the time. I don't know how kindergarten teachers at home do it. I have 12 students in my class, and I think I'm going to go crazy. I can't imagine having more than that. Kindergarten teachers are very special people. I am not cut out to be a kindergarten teacher. Bring on the high school math. I'll teach calculus. That's easier than 6 year-olds. And I wouldn't have to wipe anybody's nose.

Okay, I'm not good at this

So I haven't blogged in a long time, did anyone notice? I did, but didn't care too much. Sometimes it's hard to think of things to write about, and sometimes I have things to write about but can't find the time to write, or just don't want to. It's mostly that I don't want to. I work a lot. When I get home I just want to sit and watch television, I don't want to have to think anymore. But, I realize that I have been very bad at communicating with people from home. It has been a long time since I have talked to most of you. I feel very disconnected from everyone. I need to fix that. I will try to blog more often. My goal is every Saturday. I may blog more often, but I won't promise that. Expect Saturdays. You have permission to nag me if I don't post something. Feel free to comment the rest of the time too. I would appreciate that. You could also email, or facebook, or write letters. Those methods of communication would also be appreciated.